16gauge french shotgun wwII era

[moteman1]

need help identifying gun that my father acquired during wwII. it has pt crown mark ,stetiene 17.0 marking on barrels. on the inside of gun it has pt crown mark , df.c, 29,fusil petrik,1324 all in that order. the outside of the gun has fine engraving and the marking '' offray orleans '' on the left side . also, the marking acier cap is on the bottom barrel.

[jaguarxk120]

If you can post some pictures, that would be a great help.

[PetahW]

AFAIK:

pt crown mark - French proofmark

stetiene - French Proofhouse

17.0 marking on barrels - chambering/actual bore size

df.c - dunno

29 - 1929 ?

fusil - "shotgun"

petrik - dunno

1324 - serial number ?

offray orleans - maker's name/town

acier - "steel"

cap - dunno

.

[oneounceload]

St. Etienne is a gun making center in France, much the way Eibar is in Spain and Gardonne is in Italy

[moteman1]

thanks for the replies. in the future i will post pictures once i learn how to do it on p.c. when i try to search '' offray orleans '' it comes up to french sites wich doesnt help me any. this particular gun was seized from a german troop while my father served in europe during wwII. brought it back to the states and was used for bird hunting for many years and still is in pretty good shape

[RJay]

" seized from a German Troop " does sound so much better than, picked it out of a pile of ' turn in ' guns in the street, or confiscated it from an private home. "To the Victor belongs the spoils of the defeated".

[mapsjanhere]

You're trying to say, plundering is only bad if Nazis did it :D

[RJay]

Of course, American soldiers would never loot anything :rolleyes: And remember, it was always taken off a SS Colonel.

[Jim Watson]

I've got a Verney Carron brought back from the occupation by an older coworker. Confiscated from a German who confiscated it from a Frenchman while they were winning, I figure.

[Scorch]

The German army confiscated all firearms from private citizens in occupied France. Technically, the firearms were in safekeeping until the cessation of hostilities. German officers were known to take them out and warm them up occasionally. Many of the arms lockers were looted during the invasion of Europe.

[moteman1]

the story behind this gun was that it was taken from a german colonel. sounds all to true but thats the story. my father actually deer hunted on grounds in germany that only german officers were allowed to hunt on, of course after america invaded germany. i will post pictures of gun once i learn how to.

[moteman1]

Here is some pics of the gun

[moteman1]

More Pics

[moteman1]

A few more

[Scorch]

I have seen similar shotguns before, made in France during the 1950s and 1960s. They were about the same quality as lower-end Berettas, not bad but not top grade. I don't think it dates to the WW2 period, but I could be wrong.

[Jim Watson]

Did we know it was an over-under before? I did not.

The illustrated shotgun locks up with a sliding top "hood" like a Remington Model 32, later copied by Krieghoff and Valmet. I never heard of a French version.

[PetahW]

[Did we know it was an over-under before? I did not.]

Neither did I. :eek:.......... But, then - Why would someone "needing help to identify this shotgun" not include every detail they had available to them ? :barf:

Two things come to mind:

A picture's worth a thousand words. :)
and
A picture tells a story, don't it ? :D

.

[moteman1]

Sorry I forgot to mention over and under my bad. now that we all know it is a over and under maybe it could be identified.

[moteman1]

But again if you do read my first post I did mention bottom barrel ,doesn't a over - under have a bottom barrel?

[Jim Watson]

Ah, I took that to mean the bottom OF the barrel. That post is not what I or Dr Smith would call Precisionist English.

Any road, it looks like an interesting piece but you are presenting a gun that had to have been made nearly 70 years ago for the story to fit and records from small manufacturers in a conquered country are not very available.

[moteman1]

yes jim, i have to agree that the gun may have been made nearly 70 yrs. ago and records are not very avaible. but just maybe, somewhere in france the records do exist for this gun. it would be interesting to find its orgins and perhaps any value. its a fine gun and never failed my father whom used it for bird hunting up to the mid 1980' s . by the way, i was wondering if dr. smith is a english professor at harvard or yale .

[Jim Watson]

Edward E. Smith, PhD, was a manufacturing chemist on his "day job" before the speciality of chemical engineering was offered. In his spare time he wrote science fiction. The Galactic Patrol spoke - or telepathed - in Precisionist English. Which is a lot easier to read than the typical internet post.

Good luck.

I'm done.

[moteman1]

wow far out! chemist on his '' day job '' spare time science fiction and the galactic patrol. well any way thank you for the good luck !

[Neruda]

Your shotgun is connected to a certain Boniface Petrik who began to take out patents for shotgun mechanisms in the 1920s. Subsequently he went into partnership with a St Etienne manufacturer called Damon producing guns marked Damon Petrik. This company folded in the 1960s, I think.

It seems that your gun was made by Petrik before the Damon-Petrik partnership - but I don't know when that was! Even so a pre-WWII date may be possible.

My feeling is that Offray was the distributer at Orleans.

However, guns employing Petrik's patents were sometimes known as "Systeme Petrik", so Petrik on your gun may be merely a reference to this, I don't know.

Hope this may further your search a little.

[PetahW]

[i have to agree that the gun may have been made nearly 70 yrs. ago and records are not very avaible. but just maybe, somewhere in france the records do exist for this gun. it would be interesting to find its orgins and perhaps any value.]

Get your passport up to speed - It looks like a sabbatical to France is in order ! ;) :p :D

.

[moteman1]

thank you neruda for the useful info. it would be nice to find out the meaning of '' offray orleans '' i think that would be a great help. if you check out the site www.littlegun.be and go to france, petrik damon there is a illustration '' fusil #1 '' wich resembles my gun. also, i may consider a trip to france ! you never know i may have a rare piece that could actually pay for my trip, and i really wouldn't have to worry about my ''precisionist english'' just my french.